Tag: Sydney

Sensuality and the Subterranean: Jean-Jacques Lequeu’s Maison gothique (1777-1814) during the late Enlightenment Dr Jennifer Ferng, Lecturer Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning As one of the French utopian designers of the late Enlightenment, Lequeu is regarded by many architectural historians as having an enigmatic inventory of unbuilt work. He envisioned Grecian-Egyptian temples, Masonic grottoes, and neoclassical tombs and civic monuments. Enhanced by his training as a draughtsman, his studies of human anatomy verged on the edge of explicit prurience. This lecture surveys some of his fanciful imagery in relation to the intellectual discourses surrounding the subterranean, focusing on how myth and occult knowledge came to define his ideas of architecture and the body.Dr Jennifer Ferng is Lecturer in Architecture at the University of Sydney. She received her PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and serves as co-editor of Architectural Theory…

Two workshops on ideas of cosmopolitanism June 11-12 in Sydney. Enlightenment Cosmopolitanisms and Sensibilities The character of practiced cosmopolitanism during the Enlightenment often appears to amount to little more than an extension of early modern courtly internationalism infused with a new language of ideas. Further investigation reveals the desire on the part of Enlightenment cosmopolites to open borders in the name of economic, political, intellectual and artistic progress. This workshop explores cosmopolitanism in practice during the long eighteenth century in Europe and, through circulation, beyond its borders. It seeks out lived experiences of cosmopolitanism in the evidence of visual, social and textual expressions, and then asks how to interrogate this evidence. What were the opportunities through which border crossings became fixed in the minds of participants and observers? How was Enlightenment cosmopolitanism in practice inflected with different forms of sensibility?…

David Nichol Smith Seminar in Eighteenth-Century Studies XV 10-13 December 2014, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia Keynotes are now confirmed and a reminder of the June 15 abstract deadline. Keynote Speakers John Dixon Hunt (University of Pennsylvania) | Sophia Rosenfeld (University of Virginia) | Michael McKeon (Rutgers University) | Erika Naginski (Harvard University) The Sydney Intellectual History Network and ‘Putting Periodisation to Use’ Research Group at the University of Sydney invite you to the Fifteenth David Nichol Smith Seminar (DNS), with the theme ‘Ideas and Enlightenment’. Inaugurated and supported by the National Library of Australia, the DNS conference is the leading forum for eighteenth-century studies in Australasia. It brings together scholars from across the region and internationally who work on the long eighteenth century in a range of disciplines, including history, literature, art and architectural history, philosophy, the history of science, musicology, anthropology, archaeology and studies of material culture. We…

‘Ideas and Enlightenment’ – The Long Eighteenth Century (Down Under) David Nichol Smith Seminar in Eighteenth-Century Studies XV 10-13 December 2014, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia Call for Papers The Sydney Intellectual History Network and ‘Putting Periodisation to Use’ Research Group at the University of Sydney invite you to the Fifteenth David Nichol Smith Seminar (DNS), with the theme ‘Ideas and Enlightenment’. Inaugurated and supported by the National Library of Australia, the DNS conference is the leading forum for eighteenth-century studies in Australasia. It brings together scholars from across the region and internationally who work on the long eighteenth century (1688-1815) in a range of disciplines, including history, literature, art and architectural history, philosophy, the history of science, musicology, anthropology, archaeology and studies of material culture. We welcome proposals for papers or panels on the following topics, although please note…

Looking Closely: Interpreting Rembrandt’s Abduction of Ganymede Dr Barbara Gaehtgens An ‘Undoing the Ancient’ FASS Collaborative Research Group Event Special Lecture by Dr Barbara Gaehtgens The abduction of Ganymede 1635 – an early work by Rembrandt van Rijn – has puzzled many generations of Rembrandt scholars. The painting illustrates the classical Greek myth of the abduction of Ganymede, most beautiful of male mortals, by an eagle-guised Zeus, who desires the beautiful youth as his cup bearer. The theme was not new in art and had been represented by many other artists, including Michelangelo and Peter Paul Rubens. Rembrandt’s representation is unusual, however, in that Ganymede is not a beautiful, ephebic nude but a screaming, urinating toddler, dressed in a linen smock, who is squirming to free himself from the scarf in which the eagle is carrying him. An independent art…

Visual Manipulation and Auto/Biography The first seminar for 2014 in Auto/Biography and History series sponsored by the Global Sensibilities Group within the Sydney Intellectual History Network at the University of Sydney. Barbara Gaehtgens | 1643 or How to Represent the Queen’s New Power? Mark De Vitis | Madame as the Marquise: The Politics of Making a Mockery at the Court of Louis XIV This seminar will combine the work of two art historians researching the visual self-representation of royal woman at the French court during the seventeenth century. Dr Gaehtgens (an independent scholar based at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles) explores how Anne of Austria used multiplied images as visual propaganda to change her image from a widowed queen to a self-assured regent. In turn, Dr De Vitis (National Art School) considers the theatrical performances of Elizabeth Charlotte…

Symposium: Revolutionary ideas Perspectives on the building of an American nation This symposium considers the role of the visual arts and other forms of cultural expression in building an idea of nationhood in America from its foundation as a colony through the beginning of the 20th century. It addresses the aims of portraiture, the meanings of landscape, the rise of genre subjects and the significance of garden projects in the contexts of relationships with Britain, claims of independence, pivotal wars and moments of dramatic social change. Presented in conjunction with the Sydney Intellectual History Network at the University of Sydney Date: Saturday 16 November 2013, 10.30am Venue: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Bookings: $65 non-member/ $50 member/ $30 full-time student/ 02 9225 1878 or via the website. Website: http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/calendar/revolutionary-ideas/ Program 10.30am Registration and morning tea, Domain Theatre foyer 11am…

Hero and Villain: Lafayette’s Legacies by Laura Auricchio Laura Auricchio, Associate Professor of Art History and Dean of the School of Undergraduate Studies at The New School in New York. Co-presented by Sydney University and the Sydney Intellectual History Network (SIHN@Sydney) Americans have long hailed the Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834) as an extraordinarily admirable figure – a wealthy French nobleman who, at the age of 19, volunteered to fight in the War of Independence and prodded his king to support the rebel cause. But in France, Lafayette is seen by partisans on both the left and the right as an opportunist, a misguided dreamer, even a traitor. In her talk, Auricchio will consider how Lafayette, a man who lived by a principle that he called ‘moderation’, could have garnered such disparate reputations. While part of the answer lies in the very…

The United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney is joining with the Art Gallery of New South Wales to mount an international symposium on the Gallery’s American art collections of the 60s and 70s. This period of radical experiment gave rise to many practices and aesthetics underpinning contemporary art. Enriched by the John Kaldor gift of 2009, the Gallery boasts the world’s finest museum collection of Sol Lewitt. Major pieces by Lewitt, Carl Andre, Christo, Donald Judd, Edward Ruscha, Richard Serra, Frank Stella and Laurence Weiner are on display during the symposium. Three leading American experts, Alexander Alberro (Columbia), Charles W. Haxthausen (Williams) and Robert Slifkin (NYU) will travel to Sydney for the event. They will be joined by Australian scholars including Sue Best, Keith Broadfoot, Rachel Kent, Chris McAuliffe, Meredith Morse, and Ann Stephen. Convened for the US…

19th International Symposium on Electronic Art Sydney Australia, 7 – 16 June 2013 The 19th International Symposium on Electronic Art — presented by the Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) and supported by Destination NSW to align with Vivid Sydney — will showcase the best media artworks and future-focused ideas from Australia and around the world Projects will take place at the Powerhouse Museum, The Rocks Pop-Up, Carriageworks, 107 Projects, the College of Fine Arts UNSW, COFA’s Kudos Gallery, Tin Sheds Gallery, Verge Gallery, UTS Gallery and DAB LAB, Artspace as well as at a Parramatta hub. Projects will also link to Darwin, the Tasmanian Wilderness and Indonesia to Sydney. The ISEA 2013 exhibition program will showcase the works of over 150 innovative Australian and international artists. See the website for further information http://www.isea2013.org/ Conference Central to ISEA2013 is a thought-provoking…

J.W. Power: Abstraction – Création Paris 1934 Reviewed by Sheridan Palmer J.W. Power: Abstraction – Création Paris 1934, Sydney University Art Gallery, open now until January 26th, 2013. On the fiftieth anniversary of the J. W. Power bequest to the University of Sydney, an exhibition and catalogue produced by the University Art Gallery and Power Institute revives Power the artist, who in Australia has until now been largely eclipsed by his philanthropy. The Power Bequest, at the time close to £2,000,000, was initially announced in 1961 and was intended to support the study of the Fine Arts and in particular the understanding of contemporary art. It came with a remarkable archive including Power’s papers — now held at the National Library of Australia — and some 1170 of Power’s own works of art. These range from his more juvenile Edwardian studies executed…

The Legacies of Bernard Smith, Sydney, November 2012 Bernard Smith could rightly be called the founder of Australian art history, and his presence and influence in Australian cultural life was immense from the publication of Place, Taste and Tradition in 1945 until his death in September 2011. To explore and celebrate his work and its legacy, the Universities of Melbourne and Sydney, together with the Art Gallery of New South Wales, are convening this important two city symposium. This collaborative symposium will take place over four days in two locations, during which Australian and international scholars, curators and artists will discuss all aspects of Bernard Smith’s wide-ranging work. The Melbourne leg will take place on September 20 and 21, 2012 and the Sydney leg on November 9 and 10, 2012. The symposium is to be convened by Jaynie Anderson, Herald Professor of Fine…

University of Sydney Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the Sydney College of the Arts Full-time, 3 year fixed term: $92,604 p.a. – $99,404 p.a. including salary, leave loading and up to 17% super The University of Sydney invites applications for the Sydney College of the Arts Postdoctoral Research Fellowship 2012 A new Postdoctoral Fellowship is being offered to attract an outstanding researcher to conduct full- time research at Sydney College of the Arts at the University of Sydney. Applicants must have received their doctorate within the last six years. Aims and Status of the Fellowship The Fellowship is a highly competitive award that is advertised internationally. It contributes to SCA’s strategic plan to build its research capacity to the level where the College is a globally significant hub of research in practice-based and contemporary-arts research. The successful applicant will be based full-time at…

AAANZ conference ‘Together <> Apart’ online registration now open July 12-14, Sydney The 2012 AANZ conference will be held in the third week of the Biennale of Sydney, Together <> Apart and will address major debates and issues raised by this year’s biennale theme ‘all our relations’. It will focus on how networks of artists, curators, critics, museums, and publics structure art. It will ask: what are the stakes, outcomes, and tensions of collaborations and partnerships between artists and art institutions? This question concerns historians and critics of art of all periods as well as being a live issue for art now and offers a coherent point of intersection for the AAANZ”s diverse constituencies. Keynote Speakers Professor Thierry de Duve, author of Sewn in the Sweatshops of Marx, Revamping Kant, Pictorial Nominalism, Kant After Duchamp, and Clement Greenberg Between the Lines. Dr Helen Molesworth, Chief Curator, Institute…